i believe in a sort of benevolent universe - what lovelock called gaia is equivalent to 'god' for me. and the best i can do to be spiritual is to fully commit to being a good steward of this benevolent universe.
the best way i know to do this is through architecture. so, yeah, archtiphil, i was also serious about architecture being my religion.
christians talk about stewardship, but only a very few that i've seen practice it consistently. wendell berry's essays are great for understanding a true commitment to stewardship. there is something spiritual, for me, in understanding the material world as something to maintain and protect rather than own: the key is the caring for something other than yourself. berry extends this thinking to things, people/relationships, economics, foreign affairs...
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. . . We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it."
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy."
Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts."
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
"The line that connects the bombing of civilian populations to the mountain removed by strip mining ... to the tortured prisoner seems to run pretty straight. We're living, it seems, in the culmination of a long warfare -- warfare against human beings, other creatures and the Earth itself."
"To be sane in a mad time
is bad for the brain, worse
for the heart."
Most religions have a vertical axis which represents a open communication line with a diety or higher power (church spire, column of smoke, upright meditating figure, etc), the geometric z-axis. Was it/is it a divine experience the when your move a drawing from two dimensional (orthographic) representation to a representation that involves three (or more) dimensions (isonometrics, axonometrics, perspective) by hand or in the computer. The first time I constructed a perspectival drawing the long way by hand was such a delight, marks marks marks eventually take shape into something you feel like you can see. It's not quite religious, but it might be spiritual. The sprituality of the Z-axis.
I know this thread isn't necessarily about religion, but here is my favorite quote about it. "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinburg, physicist
Steven, i agree with your post, and I lvoe the Wendell Berry as referenced by Steven and posted by jonas. And LiG, I think you and I are on the same plane about this; 100% certainty in matters of faith is always creepy.
So here's my only problem with this thread: I hate the term "spiritual". It is so watered down and meaninglyess, like reading "natural" on the label for a food product. Everything is natural, synthetic things were brought into being via natural desires for less expensive, more convenient, whatever. An aquaintance and I once argued about the term "natural" until we agreed that everything about Manhattan is "natural" and thus realized we were arguing shadows.
Spiritual means nothing. I don't think you can characterize architects as more or less "spiritual" than anyone else because it means nothing. On the other hand, one could easily argue that architects are more anally retentive than others. No argument there, actually.
I am an atheist, yet at times I can be spiritualer than lb. Though she tends to be spiritualer than me.
And it's true that everything is natural. Unless we start mining Mars, then we may have a viable argument - I'd be on the "It's still natural" side.
My synthesizer actually uses DSP (digital signal processing) rather than sound-generating circuitry as in true analog synthesizers. So in a way an analog synthesizer is the only natural one. And DSP, which some would argue is not a true synthesizer, is the most synthetic of the two. I just blew my mind.
And, ya know, arguing about stuff like whether a DSP synthesizer is actually a "synthesizer" or not is indicatvie of how anally rententive we super-spiritual architects can be.
I feel dirty when I use it. I often confess to a vacuum tube (since they are super-natural - but not supernatural)
Oh wait. "Natural" is a euphemism for "what came first".
Oh by the way artificial flavoring is MUCH safer than natural. Here's why: natural strawberry flavoring doesn't mean flavor from a strawberry. Nope. It means the chemicals used to make the flavor are natural - for example: cow urine. Mmm...
where i grew up there were quite a lot of horse farms. horse farms only describes medium, actually. what they really were were "horse urine collection" farms. every fall the farmer would strap on a bag to the she horsies to collect their urine. said urine was used to make birth control pills from the horse estrogen... that was natural. a few years back estrogen went synthetic and those farms are out of business, the horses sold mostly for dog food....my cousin rescued about 10 of them for riding with the family.
as far as post goes, i am not spiritual. don't think that helps or hinders as designer or in life, anymore than being left handed or right handed does.
Some of these comments are straight up scary. Not to mention blasphemous (even if you don't know what the hell you're talking about).
I believe in God, without a doubt. Everything testifies of His existence. Every talent, gift and blessing comes from Him. The solid, ever-present knowledge, the only anchor in my life. This is what brings peace.
Not some humanist, earthy, relativist blanket of nothingness. There's nothing spiritual about confusion and chaos. God is not the author of confusion. Man is.
I believe there is absolute truth. I do not buy into the conditioned realities that your Marxist fool of a professor has been vomiting ever since he sold his soul and bought his PhD.
do you really not think that a society's moral systems are not a result of to use karl's verbiage, mode of production and class structure??? of course as moral absolutist you can take it all on faith.
are architects spiritual?
i believe in a sort of benevolent universe - what lovelock called gaia is equivalent to 'god' for me. and the best i can do to be spiritual is to fully commit to being a good steward of this benevolent universe.
the best way i know to do this is through architecture. so, yeah, archtiphil, i was also serious about architecture being my religion.
christians talk about stewardship, but only a very few that i've seen practice it consistently. wendell berry's essays are great for understanding a true commitment to stewardship. there is something spiritual, for me, in understanding the material world as something to maintain and protect rather than own: the key is the caring for something other than yourself. berry extends this thinking to things, people/relationships, economics, foreign affairs...
i'm a liberal roman catholic on sundays, a pagan agnostic the rest of the time. i find it difficult to square the two.
i was once asked "do you believe in god?"
depends what day you ask me
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. . . We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it."
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy."
Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts."
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
"The line that connects the bombing of civilian populations to the mountain removed by strip mining ... to the tortured prisoner seems to run pretty straight. We're living, it seems, in the culmination of a long warfare -- warfare against human beings, other creatures and the Earth itself."
"To be sane in a mad time
is bad for the brain, worse
for the heart."
-wendell berry
That was moving Jonas.
Most religions have a vertical axis which represents a open communication line with a diety or higher power (church spire, column of smoke, upright meditating figure, etc), the geometric z-axis. Was it/is it a divine experience the when your move a drawing from two dimensional (orthographic) representation to a representation that involves three (or more) dimensions (isonometrics, axonometrics, perspective) by hand or in the computer. The first time I constructed a perspectival drawing the long way by hand was such a delight, marks marks marks eventually take shape into something you feel like you can see. It's not quite religious, but it might be spiritual. The sprituality of the Z-axis.
I know this thread isn't necessarily about religion, but here is my favorite quote about it. "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinburg, physicist
Very funny, Strawbeary.
Steven, i agree with your post, and I lvoe the Wendell Berry as referenced by Steven and posted by jonas. And LiG, I think you and I are on the same plane about this; 100% certainty in matters of faith is always creepy.
So here's my only problem with this thread: I hate the term "spiritual". It is so watered down and meaninglyess, like reading "natural" on the label for a food product. Everything is natural, synthetic things were brought into being via natural desires for less expensive, more convenient, whatever. An aquaintance and I once argued about the term "natural" until we agreed that everything about Manhattan is "natural" and thus realized we were arguing shadows.
Spiritual means nothing. I don't think you can characterize architects as more or less "spiritual" than anyone else because it means nothing. On the other hand, one could easily argue that architects are more anally retentive than others. No argument there, actually.
I am an atheist, yet at times I can be spiritualer than lb. Though she tends to be spiritualer than me.
And it's true that everything is natural. Unless we start mining Mars, then we may have a viable argument - I'd be on the "It's still natural" side.
My synthesizer actually uses DSP (digital signal processing) rather than sound-generating circuitry as in true analog synthesizers. So in a way an analog synthesizer is the only natural one. And DSP, which some would argue is not a true synthesizer, is the most synthetic of the two. I just blew my mind.
And, ya know, arguing about stuff like whether a DSP synthesizer is actually a "synthesizer" or not is indicatvie of how anally rententive we super-spiritual architects can be.
I feel dirty when I use it. I often confess to a vacuum tube (since they are super-natural - but not supernatural)
Oh wait. "Natural" is a euphemism for "what came first".
Oh by the way artificial flavoring is MUCH safer than natural. Here's why: natural strawberry flavoring doesn't mean flavor from a strawberry. Nope. It means the chemicals used to make the flavor are natural - for example: cow urine. Mmm...
Where I am going with this???
Maybe that flavoring comes from a Strawbeary?
i am an athiest who is constantly thinking about god.
667
where i grew up there were quite a lot of horse farms. horse farms only describes medium, actually. what they really were were "horse urine collection" farms. every fall the farmer would strap on a bag to the she horsies to collect their urine. said urine was used to make birth control pills from the horse estrogen... that was natural. a few years back estrogen went synthetic and those farms are out of business, the horses sold mostly for dog food....my cousin rescued about 10 of them for riding with the family.
as far as post goes, i am not spiritual. don't think that helps or hinders as designer or in life, anymore than being left handed or right handed does.
i do know some cad monkeys who have no desire for advancement who were 'spiritual' because they made better workers...
Some of these comments are straight up scary. Not to mention blasphemous (even if you don't know what the hell you're talking about).
I believe in God, without a doubt. Everything testifies of His existence. Every talent, gift and blessing comes from Him. The solid, ever-present knowledge, the only anchor in my life. This is what brings peace.
Not some humanist, earthy, relativist blanket of nothingness. There's nothing spiritual about confusion and chaos. God is not the author of confusion. Man is.
I believe there is absolute truth. I do not buy into the conditioned realities that your Marxist fool of a professor has been vomiting ever since he sold his soul and bought his PhD.
hm. the most mean-spirited post yet is from the one selling god.
blasphemous? really? cool.
do you really not think that a society's moral systems are not a result of to use karl's verbiage, mode of production and class structure??? of course as moral absolutist you can take it all on faith.
His?
"straight up scary" = "the only anchor in my life"
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